General Cattle Mutual Insurance Fund. 463 



insurance arises from the practice of insurance at full value. It 

 is usual to insure moveables up to a given proportion of the 

 value ; and that would suffice in the case of cattle, of Avhich 

 the value daily fluctuates. Seven-tenths of the value may be 

 taken as the maximum insurable value ; all the mutual insurers 

 Avould on this scale retain a large interest in the lives of stock ; 

 and, as they pay for each other's losses, each would be interested 

 in general fair dealing. 



3. Insurance is inapplicable to things of small value. It is 

 not worth the expense. Thus it is not worth the while to insure 

 calves or any beast worth less than 5/.; there are, moreover, diffi- 

 culties of weekly changes of value or of identification in the case 

 of small, obscure, cheap animals. 



4. If the insurance is confined to cattle of the value of 10/. 

 and upwards per head, the work may proceed in this fashion. 



Every owner is called upon to pay a Jlorin for every head of 

 such cattle in his possession on a given day, and at such intervals 

 through the year following as may be required to meet the 

 exigencies of the case, such calls being publicly announced 

 beforehand. 



For this premium he gets a policy of insurance entitling him 

 to 11. on proof of the death by disease of any insured beast. It 

 is here assumed, as in the case of slaughter for Rinderpest, that 

 there is no salvage, for which, however, special provision can be 

 easily made when the insurance is on seven-tenths of the value. 



The collection of the premiums, the custody of the money, and 

 the pavment of the farmer for losses, on terms to be strictly 

 enforced and watched, would be the essence of this business. 



If the insurance is for an invariable sum, and is restricted to 

 cattle above a given value, it would be only necessary that the 

 owner should send in a certificate affirming the death of an 

 animal insured ; the fact being corroborated by two of his 

 co-insurers and by a policeman or some other officer after view 

 of the dead body. 



Under this simple form of insurance, if the mortality of the 

 cattle insured dicl not exceed 5 per cent, per annum, about 

 two shillings or a florin a quarter would pay the insurance; if it 

 were 10 per cent, per annum — and it Is not likely to exceed 

 this rate — a florin every six weeks would pay the Insurance and 

 probably all Its attendant expenses. 



It may be here mentioned that the duty on a dog of any 

 description is 12.?. a year ; any whelp or young dog under six 

 months of age being exempt. For a horse or a mule exceeding 

 13 hands in height, kept for riding or for drawing any carriage 

 chargeable with duty, the owner pays 21s. a year. For other 

 horses the charge is IO5. OV/. each. For ponies the charge is 



VOL. II. — S. S. 2 II 



